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eating fresh

Have you ever tasted the most succulent, tender, fall off the bone ribs in a restaurant and wanted to make it at home? Well now you can. I made these today and I can safely say that I had a very happy husband next to me. These ribs were effortless to make and so worth it. They were so tender that I struggled to slice the ribs off to take the picture! The meat was literally falling off the bone. Yes…

It’s a great dish to make when friends are coming over, as you can leave them in the oven to slow cook whilst enjoying a glass of wine with your guests and not be stuck in the kitchen the whole time.

Now this is my recipe, inspired by lots of other recipes and adapted to whatever I had in the house. So you can adapt it too. Put whatever you want on them, there is no right or wrong way of making them. I’m sure they will be delicious no matter what!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

2 rack of pork ribs

Dry Spice Rub:

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce:

100ml Jack Daniels (you can use less or more depending on how much you like it!)

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 tbsp brown sauce

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp Tobasco

1 tsp english mustard

1 tsp honey

50ml apple juice

1 tsp smoked paprika

Put all the dry spice ingredients in a pestle and mortar and beat to a fine rub. Use this rub to coat all over the ribs.

Place ribs in an oven tray and cover with foil. Cook in the oven at 160 degrees for 2.5 hours or until soft and tender and cooked through.

Meanwhile make the BBQ sauce. In a saucepan, add all of the sauce ingredients and mix together. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

Once the ribs are cooked, remove the foil and coat the ribs in the bbq sauce. Place back in the oven (uncovered) for a further 25 minutes until the sauce has cooked and thickened.

Serve with coleslaw or any sides you wish!

Now I’ll admit, my measurements are estimations simply because they are not as important as other recipes. It doesn’t matter if you add a little more tabasco or a little less apple juice. As long as you stick to the rough quantities then you will end up with a great sauce.

Yes that’s right…Peri Peri Chicken Wings! We all know and love the famous flavours of peri peri chicken from Nando’s but have you ever tried to make it at home? It’s delicious and cheaper!

Now if the weather was a little bit nicer, I would highly recommend cooking the chicken on the barbecue. But its a bit early for barbecue season so you can still make this in the comfort of your own kitchen. All you need is a grill pan and an oven! I blasted the wings on a very hot grill pan first to get that charred effect that gives great flavour and then whack them in the oven to cook through. Here’s how I made the marinade:

Blend together:

1 chopped onion

4 garlic gloves

2 whole chillies (or more/less depending how hot you like them)

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp oregano

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt and pepper

1 tsp oil

1 handful chopped parsley

Now you can adjust this recipe to suit your taste buds and experiment! Leave the skin on the wings and marinate for a few hours or overnight. Then when you are ready to cook, blast them on the grill pan either side and then cook them through in the oven. Serve with wedges and salad and enjoy!

Are you bored of seeing diet recipes all throughout January? Yes me too. There is no reason why healthy food can’t be fun and exciting to cook and eat.

If you have some spare time, why not try making some Chinese won tons? If you are having friends over, they will love it! Also, they are surprisingly easy to make so don’t worry.

You will need to buy some Chinese won ton wrappers from a good supermarket, a Chinese supermarket or online. I filled mine with pork mince but you can fill them with anything you want. Here’s what I did.

First of all you have to flavour your pork mince. Remember there is no strict recipe and you can add any flavours you want. To my pork mince, I added chopped garlic, ginger and chilli, spring onions, sesame oil, chopped carrots, salt and pepper. Simple!

Then add a small amount of pork mince to the middle of the won ton wrapper, dip your finger in water and spread on the edges of the wrapper. Next, fold one corner to the other (diagonally) and then join the bottom two corners together and press firmly.

Now your won tons are ready to cook. You can steam them or fry them, but I did both! So I got a large pan with a lid on a medium heat and added some sesame oil. I placed the won tons in the pan and let the bottoms fry for a minute or two.

Once the bottom is crispy, add a large splash of water to the pan (be careful here) and then quickly put the lid on. This steams the rest on the won ton and you will be left with a crispy bottom and a soft top. Delicious!

Serve with a soy sauce dip and some vegetables. Its absolutely gorgeous, you have to try this! Go on…

I haven’t disappeared! I realise I haven’t posted anything for a very long time and I think it’s time I made up for that. How about something fresh and exciting? I love making Mexican food, but there is only so many chicken fajitas I can eat. So I thought I would give this a try.

I absolutely love salmon and could possible eat it everyday. So I decided to make soft fish tacos using salmon fillets. I marinated the salmon with rapeseed oil, fresh lime juice, smoked paprika and chipotle paste. You can find this spicy Mexican paste in any supermarket and it has a great smoky flavour to it. And then I placed it on a hot griddle pan and let it cook through. Delicious!

Then its simply about making the different fillings for your tacos. You can make whatever you want but I thought I would try a contrast between dark spicy beans and a light and fresh guacamole and a red cabbage and mango slaw.

For the beans I fried off half a chopped onion and a chopped garlic clove in a frying pan, and then added the black beans (these are already cooked from a packet). I also added a teaspoon of chipotle paste to give it some heat. Apparently black beans are incredibly healthy and have more protein than chicken! Win.

For the guacamole I roughly chopped an avocado, 2 small tomatoes, half a red onion, half a mild chilli, a squeeze of lime juice, coriander, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.

For the red cabbage slaw, I finely sliced red cabbage, added half a chopped mango, a squeeze of lime juice, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper.

I used soft tacos rather than the crispy shells and just heated them up on the hob to make them soft and malleable. And then you are ready to assemble! Top your loaded taco with yoghurt mixed with chipotle paste and spring onions.

It was absolutely delicious and very messy. Not recommended for first dates.

Baba Ganoush! Have you ever tried it? I think I just made it because I like to say it…Baba Ganoooooush. Go on say it with me, I can hear you trying to pronounce it.

Baba Ganoush is a mezze or dip that is made from roasted aubergines and it widely eaten in Lebanese cuisines. Now I know what you are thinking, it is not the most attractive looking dish, but what it lacks in appearance it makes up in flavour.

It is very easily made and you can whip it up in no time. Just roast an aubergine in the oven until dark and soft (don’t forget to prick the aubergine with a fork before roasting, otherwise it will explode and you will end up wearing it) and leave to cool afterwards. Then scoop out the flesh and roughly chop it up. After this, simply add 1 tsp tahini (sesame seed paste), 1 fresh garlic clove (minced), lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil. You can spice it up a bit with some cumin seeds if you want that extra flavour and it’s done!

It’s a great dip that can be eaten with flatbread, pitta bread, or veggies. Yes it is slightly unusual and people might frown at it, but my husband is known for loathing aubergines, and he happily lapped this up. I think the freshly baked bread helped though.

I made a flatbread called ‘Maneesh’ from Paul Hollywood’s recipes (click here for the recipe) and it is so delicious. Easy to make and soft and airy.

So next time you have some people over, why not give it a try? Thanks for reading!

We all know that blueberries are super healthy for us, but I have to admit I don’t eat them enough. They can be a bit expensive but I do think are worth it. I bought some recently and they are like tiny bullets of sweetness. Delicious!

Of course, the baker in me wanted to cover these blueberries with batter to make muffins or whip up a batch of blueberry pancakes smothered in maple syrup. But there was a tiny voice inside me screaming about how my hips didn’t need it. So I pimped my breakfast instead. Yes I know you are disappointed in me.

Just a handful of blueberries on top of your morning porridge or granola can really give it a lift. I had some homemade granola, topped with blueberries and natural yoghurt. I could have added some honey but didn’t want the sugar content to go through the roof. It was fresh and yummy.

I get bored of eating porridge every day so I am always looking for ways to mix it up. I also like to freeze the blueberries and when you bite into them they certainly wake you up! What do you guys have for breakfast? Let me know!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at my boring sandwich or same old salad for lunch and thought, surely I can eat something else? Especially in the winter, I long for something warm that won’t make me feel sleepy all afternoon.

So today I decided to make leek and potato soup, and it was very satisfying. I didn’t add any cream (even though I really wanted to!) because as a weekday lunch I didn’t want it to be full of calories . All I did was fry a medium sized chopped onion, two garlic cloves, 2 sliced leeks and one small sliced potato in some olive oil. I let them sweat down a little bit and then added some chicken stock. I boiled it until the potato was cooked through and then added a splash of semi-skimmed milk, seasoned with salt and pepper and blitz until smooth. I also added some fresh parsley to give the soup a bit of a lift.

I think soup is a great idea for lunch, you can make a batch on the weekend and then freeze into individual portions for the week and off you go. I’m not a fan of those packet soups because who knows what is in them and they taste a bit watery to me. I like to know that I am getting some real veg in me. And there are so many different combinations you could try, such as sweet potato and carrot soup or tomato and red pepper soup. What flavours do you like?